In modern American suburbia, the garage has become the storage receptacle for a myriad of items that are necessary for work and recreation. The need for this storage space has become so acute that many suburban dwellings contain a 3-car garage even though the occupants own only two vehicles. Although, in many instances a recreational vehicle or boat occupies the third bay; in most cases, that extra space is utilized for storage and as a work area. Items such as sports equipment, gardening implements, and work shop related items, e.g., screwdrivers, hammers, wrenches, hand and power tools, and other implements for home, vehicle, or garden repair and maintenance are generally stored in the garage.
There are a number of systems for storing relatively small and lightweight articles known in the art. For example, pegboard or perforated panel systems are known for hanging articles in a vertical or horizontal orientation using pegboard hooks that are removably attached to a perforated panel. Shelving may also be provided on pegboards using the same or similar structures for securing and supporting the shelf to the pegboard. Prior art perforated panel systems (known as “pegboards”) typically comprise a pressed composite board material with regularly spaced circular perforations into which hooks may be inserted for the storage or display of tools, instruments, and other articles. Changing the locations of the stored articles requires that the hooks or shelf-supports be removed completely from their respective supporting holes in the pegboard, and then reinserted into other holes. After a period of use, the holes tend to become worn and enlarged, and eventually become unable to retain the hooks. Also, the hooks are easily misplaced or lost. These pegboard systems are also aesthetically unattractive, especially after many years of use.
A wide variety of useful fasteners for holding items to walls are also well known in the art. When attaching items to a perforated wall or pegboard, however, the available fasteners are much fewer in number, and those that are available have many severe drawbacks. Those who use pegboards are also familiar with the frustration and irritation associated with an insecure hook. Such fasteners often pull off the pegboard and get lost or damaged, especially when only one or two items are held. The typical pegboard fastener is a straight single or double bar, usually extending from about two inches to about six inches from the pegboard. A pegboard fastener of this type usually has a pair of bent rod-like offset hooked portions at its top. These offset hooked portions are inserted into horizontally adjacent holes, by a pivoting action, to situate the top tip of the hooked portions behind the wallboard while allowing the lower part of the fastener to rest against the front surface of the wallboard.
While the use of a pair of hooked portions may inhibit rotation of the pegboard fastener, it does not avoid the frustration experienced when the pegboard fastener itself is pulled off the pegboard along with the item being removed. Those who encounter such fasteners or holders for hanging items experience frustration and irritation when attempting to remove the item from the fastener, since the bottom portion of the fastener is easily pulled away from the wall surface, i.e., there is no provision for fixing it to the pegboard. Additional examples of prior art storage systems and fasteners for the same may be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. D587,934; D579,705; D577,942; D577,941; D577,940; 7,354,024; 7,353,957; D519,303; D513,968 D509,393; 6,935,518; D508,199; D502,638; D501,125; D499,626; D499,195; D499,005; D498,634; D498,372; D498,005; D497,788; D496,844; D495,944; D495,243; D495,067; D494,457; D494,451; D494,436; D494,036; D494,035; D491,449; D491,287; D491,286; 6,702,128; D482,255; D481,920; D478,805; D478,500; D478,499; 6,581,788; D469,004; D406,714; 5,593,045; D374,366; and D373,949, which patents are hereby incorporated herein by reference.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to have a storage system which allowed ease of accessibility to tools, such as gardening implements, while maximizing the use of garage space, in an aesthetically satisfying manner. It would also be advantageous to have an item holder, e.g., a shelf-bracket suitable for use with this storage system that could be mounted directly to a perforated panel portion of the storage system, thereby allowing effective use of available space while facilitating easy removal of the item holder.